How much does your stress from work affect your relationships at home? I think for most people, the answer is that stress at work does affect our relationships. In fact, there’s a label for this: the spillover effect. Researchers have been busy attempting to understand the effect so that it’s effects can be reduced.

In a recent article in Personal Relationships, researchers looked at a persons “psychological availability” or how much energy is available for us to give to those around us. They found that our psychological availability definitely plays a role in how much our stress at work affects our relationships. The question is, now what can we do about it?

Personally, I like to take a scenic route home. It has less traffic than the freeway, but is also a bit slower. I’m OK with this, though. The longer amount of time gives me a greater opportunity to review my day and process the events. I also don’t have to worry about slow drivers or people cutting me off. I also enjoy running which, aside from the health benefits, also has produced a lot of ideas for me to pursue at work and in my personal life.

This in and of itself is a great stress relief! Yes there are times when work is just overwhelming and no amount of relaxation techniques can help. But it is helpful to have strategies available when we need them to increase our psychological availability. I think most people would say no job is worth their relationships.

What are some strategies you use to increase your psychological availability?